Broken Promises
by passionsanddevotions
Summary: Mr. Gold returns to the hospital after finding Baelfire. This was written before Manhatten aired. And it is angsty.


Neal - because he was still Neal despite the possibility of becoming Baelfire again so recently walking into his life - was uncharacteristically quiet and rather deeply uncomfortable on the journey to a small town in Maine; being surrounded by broken promises could create an atmosphere of tension, he supposed.

In the passenger seat was his father, who so many years ago had broken the deal that would have allowed them to stay together without Neal having to worry about anyone who came near him. His Papa had made him a promise and then reneged when he couldn't leave magic behind and move past the cowardice that had always plagued him. That failure to see a deal through had left Neal alone in a world completely different than the one he had always known. He'd made it through, but it had never been easy.

When Rumplestiltskin had shown up at Neal's apartment early that morning, the younger man had been thoroughly shocked. Standing before him had been the man he remembered his father being before the curse ever overtook him, and as they both stuttered through greetings, Neal had honestly thought that his father had finally managed to give up the power and follow Neal to this land without magic.

But then the second broken promise (and driver of this yellow bug) had showed up behind his father. Emma Swan. And with her came grief and guilt. Because as much as his father had ever lied to him, he'd done worse to Emma. He had told her that they would make a life together, that he would be with her forever. And he had abandoned her. He had allowed her to take the fall, alone, for a crime he had committed. He had left her the bug, and the money from fencing the watches, but he hadn't contacted her since then and he hadn't been able to escape from the guilt of it since it happened.

But August W. Booth had told him she needed to do things on her own. That people's lives depended on him leaving her to go through her life without him. Booth had promised to send him a note when he was able to go see her again. And he'd kept that promise, if the postcard he'd received recently was any indication.

He had wanted so badly to go to her, but the guilt held him back. He knew how she felt about her parents leaving her by the roadside as a baby. Knew about how badly the foster care system had treated her. So he knew that his abandonment was one of the worst things that could have happened to her. It was something she wouldn't forgive easily, if ever. And so he had stayed away and debated himself constantly about whether or not he should go. Whether or not she'd ever be willing to see him again.

It seemed that his first assumption had been right. When she'd showed up behind his father she'd greeted him by his name and hadn't spoken a word to him since. And given that Booth had said she'd needed to be separated from him so that she could break a curse, Neal had in turn refused to talk to his father for the first hour or so of the journey.

The fourth broken promise in the car was either the worst or the best of them. Henry was adorable and seemed like a really great kid, not that Neal had any experience with them. Emma had introduced the two of them, and the kid had immediately asked if Neal were his father. No background, no lead up, just a bold "Is he my dad?" addressed to Emma. Neal had expected, well, he didn't know what he had expected. But a simple yes was not anywhere near it.

Rumplestiltskin and Emma had both seemed equally shocked that they now seemed to be related to each other, but they seemed to be dealing with it by not mentioning it which wasn't particularly difficult since neither of them were talking at all. Unfortunately the lack of talking, including Emma ignoring his attempts to apologize, only allowed Neal's guilt to spiral further. It had been bad enough to think of having left her alone, with no one to fall back on, and in jail. Now the idea that he'd left her pregnant as well was threatening to break him apart. And he should have been around not just for her, but for Henry as well. He might never have spoken a promise to the child, but he was his father. That ought to be a promise of protection and love in and of itself.

Thankfully Henry, who was seated in the back of the bug with him, was talking enough to keep his mind off of it at the moment. The boy told him a fabulous story about an Evil Queen (his adoptive mother) casting a curse that trapped all the inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest in this world. A story about how Emma was the Saviour, meant to come back and release them all from the prison they weren't even aware they were in. Henry told him about how he'd gone to find Emma and bring her back to Storybrooke, and how she'd managed to break the curse. And for the first time in a very long time Neal was allowed to believe in curses and magic and evil queens and fairies.

Halfway through the journey they took some time to get food and some of the tension, between Neal and his father at least, broke. It made sense. Theirs was an older hurt than what Neal had done to Emma, it didn't hurt quite as violently to pick at the wounds. Rumplestiltskin traded seats with Henry and spent much of the rest of the journey describing in hushed tones the years that had followed Neal's trip to this world. Neal was surprised to find that what had only been about two decades for him had been over three centuries of scheming for his father.

The Dark One told Neal about questioning the Blue Fairy, about searching for years for other methods before finally falling onto the idea of the curse, about training Regina to use magic and cast the curse. He faltered for a moment before continuing his story of helping Snow White and Prince Charming to find each other multiple times, of building the magic of their True Love into the curse, and of being imprisoned before the curse was finally cast. He ended with Emma's arrival and reawakening to his true identity, saying he'd been searching for a way to get to Neal ever since.

Neal wasn't quite sure how he felt about the fact that his father had built a curse from scratch with little thought to how it would affect everyone else. He also wasn't happy that his father had managed to bring magic to this land that wasn't meant to have it. And yet, those things were necessary in order for him to find Neal, and Neal found he couldn't fault his father for that. And too, as Rumplestiltskin explained, it seemed that the magic was confined only to Storybrooke, a barrier of some sort seeming to encapsulate the small town.

The subject of the town line caused his father to retreat further into himself, which made Neal want to pursue it more. Rumplestiltskin got surly and growly, but with enough prodding on Neal's part he finally gave up the story, his personal story after he'd refused to follow Neal through the portal, the story of - to hear his father tell it - the beauty that tamed the beast.

According to his father, Belle was beautiful and intelligent and adventurous and the very bravest person Rumplestiltskin had ever come across, other than his son. Neal listened as he talked about taking Belle as a housekeeper and someone to block out the loneliness, how she had worked her way deeply into his heart with her smiles and refusals to be afraid of him - even when he tried to scare her - , and how he had somehow become important to her. He explained about the kiss in the Dark Castle, his fear of losing his power - at that point the only hope he had of regaining his son -, of Regina trying to be rid of him. He closed his eyes as he explained about throwing Belle out, and his voice broke several times as he spoke about Regina informing him of Belle's death.

Neal was absolutely mesmerised. This was more emotion than he had ever seen his father display since becoming the Dark One, and to be honest a fair bit more emotion that he had seen him display even before that. Whoever this girl was, she was clearly very important to him. Henry was equally enthralled, practically turned around in his seat to hear the story. Even Emma wasn't immune, looking in the rearview mirror every few minutes as she drove in silence. Clearly Rumplestiltskin hadn't gotten any better at sharing himself if Emma and Henry knew as little or less than Neal now did about the man.

So Neal listened quietly as his father continued to talk about finding Belle alive in this new world - finding that she had, in fact, never been dead -, of discussions of power and honesty, plans to find Neal, failed hamburger dates, giving her a library. About her promise, at the town line, that she'd be waiting for him when he got back. Of Hook's shot, Belle's fall over the line, and her loss of any memory pertaining to anything, including him.

The last half hour of the trip was completed in silence while Neal tried to deal with everything he'd learned so far today and everyone else was caught up in their own thoughts.

Upon reaching Storybrooke they drove directly to the hospital; Emma wanted to check on the newcomer and Rumplestiltskin wanted to check on Belle. They ran into Belle first. They entered a lounge room and Neal only just managed to stop before walking right into his father who had ceased moving quite abruptly and whispered her name, alerting Neal to the identity of the pretty little brunette sitting at one of the tables with a puzzle in front of her. She was facing the dark haired man next to her who was currently bent over the puzzle, his back to their small party. She was smiling and it was easy for Neal to see how anyone could fall in love with her.

His father's face was the softest he had ever seen it. The love he felt for the woman at the table was nearly tangible, it shone so strongly in his eyes.

The fury that warped his expression when the man turned a second later actually seemed to drop the temperature of the air around him. "Hook." he snarled as he started forwards, and suddenly Neal could understand the expression on his face, this then was the man who had shot the pretty young girl and taken her memories from her.

"Ah, Crocodile." the other man replied.

Belle looked up at Hooks face and whimpered slightly as she stepped closer to him. Her voice was tiny as she spoke to him. "He's the one that killed your wife?"

Rumplestiltskin's response to that was nothing more than a growl as he glared at Hook and advanced on him. He stopped short as Belle squealed an curled herself into Hook, who wrapped his arms around her. "Don't let him hurt me, Killian. Please."

Neal could feel his father's heart drop as if it were his own. All the fury left him completely as he reached out to the girl, whispering her name softly. But she shrieked and pulled Hook towards the door without letting go of him.

Baelfire could not ever remember seeing his father weep for grief. From fear and embarrassment before he became the Dark One, certainly, and never after he took the curse. But even before the curse, Bae could not remember seeing his father weep in sadness.

He saw it now, as the older man dropped his cane and fell to his knees, head bowed and fingers clutching tightly at his legs for wont of better purchase, weeping thickly that his true love was in the hands of a dangerous enemy and so honestly afraid that he might actually be capable of hurting her. Belle had promised to be waiting for his father, to love him, to not be afraid of him. Bae had seen how much she'd been able to change his father for the better as Rumplestiltskin told his story, and he was grievously sorry that hers had been among the promises broken in the world.


End file.
